area. some people were sand blasted to death. ernest hemingway said not one blade of grass was left 7 p y7 s ago today. that's how fox reports on this sunday september 2nd, 2012. fox news is your place for the best political coverage anywhere. >> chris: i'm chris wallace. the republicans make their are case. now, it is the democrat the's turn here in charlotte. can barack obama recapture the magic of his convention four years ago? we'll discuss the plan for this week with david axel rod, it as "fox news sunday" exclusive. then how about democrats defend the president's economic record? we'll ask the convention chairman los angeles mayor are antonio villaraigosa.

and the romney ticket takes its momentum on the road. we will ask our sunday panel if they have been able to shift the dynamics in this it campaign. all right now on "fox news sunday." and hello again from fox news today in the queen city, charlotte, north carolina. site of the democratic national convention. our fox news sky box is high up in the time-warner cable arena, home of the probasketball charlotte bobcats and starting tuesday the first two days of this convention. and happy labor day weekend, everyone, while this holiday used to signal the start of the fall campaign, both sides have been hitting each other hard for months. as democrats prepare to nominate barack obama for a second term we are joined from the trail by his top strategist david axelrod. welcome back to "fox news sunday." >> thanks, chris, good to be with you. >> chris: any one at the

democratic convention in denver four years ago remembers the magic there, the sense of hope and endless possibilities. how do you recapture that magic this week? >> well, i'm glad you have such warm memories of that convention, chris, first of all. i share them. i think we going to have a very good week in charlotte. our party, we don't have the problems that the other party has. we are not divided. we don't have to worry about, you know, what people are saying on the side or about their affection for the president. we don't have the problemsnd we don't have the reinvention convention. we believe strongly we have to move the country forward around policies thatle lift the middle class and that is how you grow the economy and we will point the way to the future this week and everybody is very excited about it. >> chris: at the republican convention, mitt romney said the president's real problem is his record. and let's take a look at that. >> every president since the

great depression who came before the american people asking for a second term could look back at the last four years and say with satisfaction you're better off than you were four years ago. except jimmy carter. and except this president. lmp. >> chris: david can you honestly say that the average american is better off today than they were four years ago? >> here is what i is can say, chris. we are in a better position than we were four years ago in the economy. when the president took office we were losing 800,000 jobs a month. the quarter before he took office is the worst quarter this country had economically since the great depression and we are in a different place, 29 straight months of job growth. 4.5 million private sector jobs. are we where we need to be? no. the problem with what governor romney said is for three days they never offered a plausible alternative. he spoke for 45 minutes and never really offered any real

ideas for how to move the economy forward, for how to lift the middle class. in that sense i think his convention was a terrible failure. he never talked about the principal planks of his own plan and talked about his $5 trillion tax cuts skewed to the wealthy and never talked about turning medicare into a voucher pro gram. there is so many things that he didn't talk about and people walked away the voters trying to decide and said what alternative exactly is he offering. >> chris: but you keep talking about romney. i would like to talk about the obama record and i want to put some statistics up on the screen. unemployment was 7.8% when the president took office. it is now 8.3%. median household income was almost $55,000. it is now less than $51,000. gas was $1.85 a gallon when took office and now it is $3.78, almost double. the national debt was

$10.6 trillion and it may go past 16 trillion dollars this week. looking at the president's record and statistics is the average american better off than four years ago. >> i think the average american recognizes it took years to create the crisis that erupted in 2008 and peaked in january of 2009 and it will take some time to work through it. you say keep talking about mitt romney. i keep talking about mitt romney because all mitt romney does is talk about barack obama and this election is a choice where you will hear this week in charlotte is a president who is going to present a clear agenda for the future to talk about how to build a sound economy and lift the middle class in the country. you didn't hear those things from the republican party. they don't want to talk about their ideas because their ideas are not ideas about the future. they are a derivative of what we did in the last decade that

brought our economy to its knees. >> chris: david, again, going back to the president's record because he is the one seeking reelection. he he famously said if i don't turn this thing around i will be a one term president. the economy has 300,000 fewer jobs, net-net, 300,000 fewer jobs now than in february of 2009. >> every single month for the last 29 months i have heard republicans give that talking point and every month that number gets smaller and smaller, chris, because we gained 4.5 million jobs in the last 29 months. let's talk specifically about you say are people better off. i think the auto workers whose industry would have collapsed if the president hadn't intervened are certainly better off. i think that the millions and millions of young americans who have healthcare today who wouldn't have had it if the president hadn't acted are better off. i think the millions of people who have been able to

renegotiate their mortgages so that they are paying lower interest rates are better off. so there are are plenty of people in our economy who have been impacted in a positive way by the decisions the president's made but we have a lot of work to do. this is not just about reclaiming the jobs we have lost. it is about cree reclaiming the economic security the middle class lost over a long period of time. we will not do that with another multitrillion dollars tax cut for the wealthy and by turning medicare into a voucher program. that is the choice the american people are going to face on november 6 and it is one i think that will resolve in the president's favor. >> chris: well, as everybody always says, it as cliche, elections are about the future so let's talk about the future and what the president is offering his economic plan to jump start the economy and get more jobs created. let's put it up on the screen. cut payroll taxes in half. $140 billion for new construction and to hire teachers and first responders

and $62 billion to extend unemployment benefits and to train workers. question, how many jobs will that create? independent andthe in dehe lits have given is it will immediately give us a million more job. we need to take those steps in the short run to accelerate the economy but we need to take steps in the long run and the question is do we do that by cutting taxes for the wealthy or pay down the deficit and invest in things like education and training, research and development and innovation. clean energy technology, infrastructure. the president has a balanced plan for the long-term as well as a plan for the short-term. governor romney has neither. moody say if we enacted the romney plan it would actually ratchet down the recovery in the short-term and would balloon our deficits in the long-term and h his plan

according to the book brookings institute would actually raise the tax burden on the middle class by $2,000. this is not a prescription for building a stronger economy. >> chris: but david, again, i want to focus if we can on the president's plan. according to mark zandy the chief economist at moody's it would create 1.9 million jobs. according to a survey of of 24 economists by bloomberg it would create a quarter of that, 250,000 jobs, actually an 8th of that. that is about 100,000 jobs a month or less which is no where near even keeping up with the population growth. the point is that they are making is that this doesn't really solve the unemployment problem at all and i think you you would be hard pressed to find anybody that would say increasing taxes on the wealthy, it may be a good answer for the deficit but isn't going to jump start the economy. >> will, first of all, that is 100,000 on top of the growth we

already have. we are already creating on the average 100,000 jobs a month. so we are talking about on top of that. but in most of those folks -- all of the analysts suggest that it is something that we need to do. we need a short-term plan but also need a long-term plan. the president has a plan that would reduce the deficits by $4 trillion over the next decade according to the congressional budget office and still allow for investments in those things that we need to grow the economy. governor romney has no such plan. if you are interested in growing the economy clearly you should go with the person who has a plausible plan. >> chris: let's talk about that plan. when does the president balance the budget? >> i know this is the question that paul ryan couldn't answer about the republican budget. the president's -- the president's plan would do what the simpsons bowles plan would do which is cut the deficit by $4 trillion, reduce it to under

our -- our deficits to under 3% of the gross domestic product which is what everybody agrees we need to stablize the debt and then with growth be he in a position to begin reducing it further. so, you know, we have a plausible -- >> chris: my point is the congressional budget office. >> let me say one thing about this. go ahead, you make your point and then i will make mine. >> chris: it is not a point. it is a question. is congressional budget office says that the president's 2013 budget plan never balances the budget and they also say that he does nothing to deal with the long-term structural problems of entitlements. so if you talk about long-term dealing with our economy and our debt, the president never balances the budget. >> chris, as i said to it you, we agree with simpson and boles and others who have looked at this. what is necessary is to stablize the debt and then work from there are. you can't balance the budget in the short-term because to do

that would be to ratchet down the economy. we just had a discussion about what is needed to. >> chris: never is not the short-term. >> but. >> chris: never is not the short-term and simpson boles. >> to stablize the debt. >> go ahead. >> chris: simpson boles that was your presidential commission and you ignored it. >> i notice that congressman ryan made that point in his speech without mentioning that he was on the commission and voted against it and why did he vote against it? because it called for tax cuts. tax increases on upper income americans and the other party. >> chris: david he voted against it because it didn't do anything about entitlements. it is a fair point that he didn't mention it but that isn't why but the point it was the president's commission and he let it die on the vine. >> the party took another position. he didn't let it die on the vine, chris. it helped shape his proposals. he has a plausible credible $4 trillion plan. the congressional budget office said it as plussible credible plan. everyone agrees if it were

enacted it would have a very positive empact. we would stablize the debt and the reason it won't pass is because the republican party in the congress with mitt romney support says they won't raise taxes on any one in this country including the superwealthy even by one dollar. they are not credible on the deficit. paul ryan stood on that platform and looked up at that deficit at that debt clock and he made no mention of the fact that he -- that he voted for every single one of the policies in the last decade that are at the root of the explosion of the debt. two unpaid wars. two unpaid tax cuts. unpaid medicare prescription drug program. they have no standing to talk about deficits and their plans today would explode them in the future. $5 trillion of tax cuts mitt romney wants. $2 trillion more in defense spending and no plussible plan to support the cuts. they can be bold and talk about facing up to these problems.

they just don't do it. >> chris: i could go back at you and i would love to do it. running out of time. talk about politics, not issues. the tracking polls, so far, many seem to show that romney got about a 3 to 5 point pounce out of his convention according to one poll. new loading by three points and was trailing by two. what does your poll show in terms of the bounce the republicans got? >> i don't really see any bounce, chris. i actually -- you know, i haven't seen numbers this morning but throughout the week i saw is absolutely no movement and i don't think there would have been because people were looking for answers and looking for solutions and what they got were snarky attacks and bromides for the race. i think the race is exactly where it was before they walked in and now it is our turn. >> chris: and in less than a minute where is this race now? >> i think that we have a lead in this race. it is a slight lead. it is going to be a close race. i think we are ahead in all of

the battleground states. there are slight leads in the battleground states. we expected a close race and we are doing everything that we can to make our chase t case te american people and charlotte is a big part of that. >> chris: thanks for talking with us and we will see you on the campaign trail. >> look forward to it. look forward to it. >> chris: up next, the chairman of the democratic convention, los angeles mayor antonio villaraigosa. we'll be right back from

>> chris: and we are back now in the fox news sky box in the time-warner arena here in charlotte.

the mayor of one of the nation's largest cities will have a big role this week. joining us now, the chairman of the democratic national convention, los angeles mayor antonio villaraigosa. welcome to "fox news sunday." >> good to see you again, chris. >> you may be the chairman of the democratic convention but you like to say and i will read the quote you take on stupid whereever is exists. what is stewed by with romney and the republicans. >> i don't want to describe either governor romney or the republicans as stupid but i will say this. if you look at their platform, the 2012 platform, it looks like it is from another century and maybe even two. it looks like the platform of 1812. when you see that they want to repeal the affordable care act providing 32 million people with healthcare with no alternative plan of their own, they call for the self-deportation of 11 million

people. no country in the world has ever done that. they don't believe in abortion even in the case of rape and incest. it is a platform that is from another century. >> chris: i just want to point out that romney does support the exception for rape and incest. since you say that you take on stupid whereever it exists what is stupid about obama and the democrats. >> if i wasn't going to call romney and the republicans stupid i'm certainly not going to call the democrats and president obama ste stupid. there are some democrats that don't want to address pension reform. i have taken on the issue of seniority and tenure. i think we have to address entitlements and the president has done that in his budget. i think we have to extend medicare and the president has done that. but also reinvest in. >> chris: he doesn't have any

major entitlement reform. >> well, he has made it absolutely clear that he is prepared to work on a bipartisan basis to address things like social security even though -- >> chris: but he has had four years to do that. >> every time he tries to work with them they listen to senator mcconnell. what does he say. his number one issue is to block the president. >> chris: but in fairness for the first two years he had a filibuster proof majority in the senate and a big majority in the house. >> and for the first two years he was dealing with the biggest recession the worst hemorrhaging of jobs since the great recession. look, you are not going to get me to say that democrats don't make mistakes. we do. i mentioned two areas, pension reform and seniority and teenure. tenure. i advocated for both and reform as well. we are not a homogenous party

any more than the republicans are but we are a party that i think has a plan to take us forward and if you look at the republican plan it is a plan that wants to resurrect the bush tax policies and economic policies that got us here in the first place. >> but let me just interrupt for a second. >> you can interrupt as much as you want. >> chris: put aside romney and the attacks on romney for a second. talk about the president's record. he is seeking reelection. here is his record. his economic record. 8.3% unemployment. 23 million americans out of work or unable to find full-time jobs. $5.3 trillion added to the debt. why does the president with that record deserve reelection? >> because he also created 4.5 million jobs. more jobs during his tenure than all of the jobs created dosh the bush administration. why because he has a plan to

cut $4 trillion in the next decade out of our deficit. a plan to extend medicaid by 8 years. plan that will say let's take taxes on the top 2% of america back to where they were under president clinton when we had an economy that generated 23 million jobs and importantly we -- that started with deficits and ended with surpluses. >> chris: you talk about addressing the long-term problems. let's take one example. the president appointed his own commission, the boles simpson commission which came up with this big bipartisan plan to take $4 trillion out. came out with its recommendations. the president ignored the recommendations and let them die. you said if you had been a member of coc congress you woud have "absolutely voted for

boles simpson." the president took agelast as president of the conference of mayors we passed the simpson bowles plan as a template for moving forward and the president has done the same. you talked about the republican convention. mr. ryan raised that as well. what he didn't say is he was a member of that commission and didn't vote for it. >> chris: i understand. it was the president's commission and he did nothing with it. >> what the president has done he is also cutting $4 trillion out of this deficit. now, he is not cutting -- >> chris: but in a way that republicans will never buy. the other plan had bipartisan support. >> he didn't have mr. ryan's support. and you are right, it it wasn't exactly reflective of mr.-- it did have republicans and it had democrats as well. not enough of them. it should have had a unanimous support for it as a frame work, not for everything in it. and what the president has done, he has adopted $4 trillion in deficit cuts over the next ten years. what he didn't do is he didn't want to cut defense as much and

he actually went beyond them in terms of tax cuts to the middle class. he does not want to cut taxes for the middle class. he would prefer closing tax loopholes and importantly allowing the bush tax cuts to expire for the top 2%. >> chris: let's turn to -- >> we believe you got to build the economy from the middle out, not from the top down. bush 41 called that voodoo economics. and this is voodoo economics on steroids, chris. >> chris: regan had a lot better growth rate and a lot lower unemployment than barack obama did. >> regan would be turning in his grave to hear some of the words that have come out of the people at the republican convention. >> chris: i wonder how he would feel about this group. >> he wouldn't be too happy either, believe me. >> chris: let's turn to the hispanic vote which may play a key role in the election. here is what you said about the republican convention.

you can't just turn trot out a brown face or a spanish sur name and expect people are going to vote for your party or your candidate. senator marco rubio is one of the rising stars of the republican party. that is more than tokenism, sir. >> let me be actual clear. i said in the makeup room i thought susanna martinez and mar rubio gave the two best spinaches of the convention. marco rubio was exceptional. i was never directing my comments towards him. in fact, he actual ally agreed with me. the only thing he said is if that applies to the republicans it also applies to the democrats and i don't disagree with that. the difference between us is that he has a party platform that calls for the self-deportation of 11 million people. they didn't just have susan that martinez and marco rubio.

they trotted out sheriff arpaio and they were prominently there as well. when it you have the kind of rhetoric that they have that demonizes immigrants the way they do. 9 million of the people that would qualify for the affordable care act are latinos. >> chris: unemployment among hispanics is now 10.3%. it hasn't been below 10% for hispanics since this president took office. and when you include discouraged works unemployed and underemployed it is 19% for hispanics. that is a record to run for reelection? >> well, and what you didn't say and not contesting your numbers but what you didn't say is that his policies also brought 2 million latinos out of poverty. his policies making it easier for kids to get student loans

allowed 150,000 kids to get a college education. so yes, this is the worst economy since the recession. we have created more jobs. we had 29 straight months consecutive months by the way of private sector job growth. 4.5 million jobs. we still got to do a lot more. according to moody's analytics if we keep down this path we will create another 12 million jobs in the next four years. >> chris: that is what romney says he will do, too. >> moody anna littics said it about us and that is where he got the number. >> chris: what do you think it will be this time? >> i said i think h it will be closer to 70%. between 67 and 70. i just don't see them getting many -- much more beyond that. i do agree with this -- that we have got our work cut out for us. this will be a very close election. we have the most comprehensive and keep ground effort we have ever seen. in fact, this convention is not

only ting about be the most diverse open and accessible, also a working convention. >> chris: why do you think this will be a tough election? >> well, it is going to be a tough election for a lot of reasons. one, the country is evenly divided and has been for a long time. two, we had a banner year in 2008 and obviously are not going to have that kind of year this time around. they have a lot of money and raising over a billion three in -- super pa prime minister s super pacs that engage in super smears. i think in the end we are going to win. >> chris: thanks for joining us. good luck, sir. >> thank you. >> chris: up next, president obama campaigns his way to charlotte. we will ask our sunday group what he and his heart have to do here to boost their chances for another victory in november as we continue from the site of the democratic national convention.

we, they he offered -- what they he offered over those three he days was more often than not an agenda that was better suited for the last century. it was a rerun. we had seen it before.

you might as well have watched it on a black and white tv. >> chris: president obama at a campaign stop saturday offering his review of the republican convention. it is time for our sunday group, brit hume, fox news senior political analyst. kirsten powers. bill kristol from the weekly standard and jeff zelany from the new york times. the big challenge this week may not be how he compares to mitt romney in tampa but as i suggested to david axelrod, how he compares to barack obama in 2008. is that possible? >> this will be a very different kind of convention. i'm sure an attempt to have some uplift and sense of hope for the future. the president is burdened in this by his record as your entire record with both david axel rod and mayor villaraigosa indicated. as you noted in both cases

particularly in the case of david axelrod it always came back to the attack on the other side. a big part of what we will hear this week and central argument you will hear from many of the speakers, certainly from bill clinton, all the republicans want to do is take us back to the policies that got us in this mess before. a lot wrong with that argument perhaps but i think it is perhaps an effective argument and one that the republicans have not yet found a way really to counter. >> chris: is hope and change and the promise of denver of 2008 dead? >> i don't think so but i think it will be a different convention obviously. obama already is talking about the republican convention as a rerun. you have lived through before you don't want to go through it again is what he just said on the latest campaign stop. i think there will be a lot of that but a lot of laying out what he wants to do in his next term. and i think that they also will -- i have heard at least

they going to focus a lot on foreign policy because that is an area where he is very strong and has a lot of approval and while it is not the issue that americans are necessarily voting on it does really reenforce the fact that people see him as a strong leader and so i think that we will probably see more of that than perhaps people are expecting. >> chris: bill, we are talking about the attacks by the democrats on romney and i will get back to that in a minute. let's talk about the republican attacks on the president and how they have to deal with it. what is interesting to me in tampa that the republicans didn't attack obama so much as they shared the disappointment of people who voted for obama four years ago and don't feel they got what they hoped and expectd that they would get. how big an issue is that for democrats here to deal with is disillusionment of obama voters? >> i think the democrats and president obama personally will say that he understands people's disappoint feels their pain to use bill clinton's term that things haven't quite

improved as much as they should have but he will say they are better than they were in september and october of 2008. i agree with wri brit that republicans have underestimated that argument. things havent been great the last few year. if he were less vain he would do the best to akron that he made mistakes. acknowledge the mistakes but say what was the worst moment mr. and mrs. middle class america if your adult lifetime. september of 2008 when it looked like we were going off a cliff who was president then and had control of congress. it wasn't me. it was george w. bush and the republicans. that is a strong argument to make. a backward looking argument but gives him the permission to say i haven't quite improved things as much as i hope but a lot better than the alternative. if they ask characterize the alternative to back to bush. >> chris: how concerned are they in chicago the head quarters for the obama campaign

about -- because the republicans were focused entirely on the obama voters who are now on the bubble. how much of a concern is that group, that voting bloc and the disillusionment they feel? >> the chicago head quarters is focused on the obama voters, too. trying to motivate much pore than persuade people. one thing president clinton is trying to do is sort of take the permission slip away, you liked president obama four years ago and supported him, here is your permission to vote against him. he is going to try and say look, everything is not as rosy as it should have been but stick with him. so if you look in the suburbs of some of these cities, the suburbs around columbus, ohio, in cleveland and cincinnati, the suburban women and in dehe pendent voters chicago is paying extreme attention to them. and even near in north carolina it is all the obama voters who

are at the center of this here though. i think the president is going to probably do his best humble act that we have seen and we will see how much that is. >> chris: humble act from barack obama? >> we will see how subbasesful he is at that. >> chris: what do you mean by humble? >> saying i wasn't able to do everything that i hoped to do. make the democrats feel better about themselves and give him a chance for four more years. i would think there will be a little bit of humility. we will see how much humility he has in his vains. i'm not sure. >> chris: there is the obama record. weak recovery. there is continued unemployment over 8%. the national debt is going to exceed $16 trillion this week. how do they handle that? do they ignore it? >> well, i think that they could do a much better job frankly looking at david axelrod. he has had successes and they

don't talk about them. he alludes to auto bailout. they need to talk more about the specific things that have gone well. talk about the fact that a majority of economists say without the stimulus we would be in worst shape than we are. i do think it matters to talk about where we started out. i don't think they should belabor it or even mention george bush's name. remind people that he has dug us out of a pit and we are on the right track and you don't want to change horses mid stream. and if you go back to the republicans you will go back to exactly what you had before. do you want to do that or want to keep moving in the direction that we are moving in. >> chris: brit? >> i think that constitutes a significant challenge for the republicans because it is not easy to ask people who voted one way just a few years ago making a significant change to say to themselves gee, i made a mistake. you know, this is some republicans who voted for obama. i don't think he is going to get any of them this year.

almost none. but among centrist voters and among independents these are the people who will decide the election then you are asking them to admit that they made a mistake and turn in another direction. if the argument is made that this isn't really a new direction, this is just back to the same old policies that polls show people think brought us into this under president bush it really does help the president. look, there are a lot of things wrong with that argument and the idea that barack obama dug us out. the truth is the worst of the recession was over by the time barack obama took office and economy began to grow again in 2009 before the stimulus spending began to take effect. arguements available to the republicans. oddly we haven't heard them made very effectively. >> chris: bill, how tough do you expect the attacks on romney to be and what will they hit hardest? >> that is a good question. two weeks guy the republican's war on women. they were hammering that in

paid advertising and speeches by senior democrats. i don't think i heard that phrase from axelrod or mayor villaraigosa. >> chris: why not? >> i wonder if the base loves it and they spent a week or two doing it. and the polls showed no one really believes the republicans are waging a war on women. the republicans sort of believed it was a threat. the theme at the republican convention was we love women and we are not engaged in a war on women. i bond fer that was a little bit of misdirection by the democrats. seems they will go with the economic argument. cutting taxes for the wealthy and not doing anything for middle class. that is the core argument, not the social issues, i suspect. >> chris: president obama's speech thursday obviously is the head liner with you a close second for a lot of us at least is bill clinton's speech on wednesday. what do you expect him to say and what does in the never ending soap opera what does it say about the relationship between president obama and president clinton.

>> the most fascinating part of this. if president obama was in better shape there is no chance that bill clinton would be speaking in a prime spot on wednesday evening. president bide season introducing the president sort of on thursday. bill clinton has to be loving this. he is needed again by his party. we know what he ising. >> to say because it is already playing on television ads throughout battleground states and here in north carolina. he is going to sort of try to give his seal of approval to this president on the economy but all of that may not matter because friday morning nine hours after president obama gives his speech the new jobs report comes out so that is going to bring reality back in the campaign. >> chris: we will pick up on that. we have to take a break here. we we come back, how did the romney ryan convention do at their convention in tampa and have they shifted the dynamics of this race. we will get some answers when we come back from we asked over 3,000 doctors to review 5-hour energy

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he made a lot of promises. and i noted that he didn't keep a lot of promises. one of the promises he made was he was going to create more jobs and today 23 million people are out of work or stopped looking for work or underemployed. let me tell you, if you have a coach that is zero and 23 million, you say it is time to get a new coach. >> chris: that was mitt romney saturday pressing his attack on president obama's record these halftime four years and we are back -- these last four years. back now with the panel. there hasn't been much polling since the republican convention but the rasmussen tracking poll indicates a modest romney bounce. take a look at that if we can. a week ago he trailed the president by two points and now leads by three points.

brit, what do you make of that? >> one thing about that is that the ryan announcement preconvention spent some of the force that you would normally get. you think of a convention that had a huge bounce bun o one ofe biggest was four years ago and the civilian announcement and hethe about performance into ad into the convention. completely stepped on the bounce from the obama convention. if ryan had been announced on the eve of the convention and gave the speech he gave i think that the effect of it would have been bigger. but i think he got a little help, he began to come up a bit in the polls after ryan so part of it was spent. and the other thing is that the coverage now is so diminished in the length of time that it is on everywhere. te10 to 11 is one hour a night really and the convention was

shrunk to three nights and so on. i think we are in it a new age here where convention bounces may not be what they used to be. >> chris: i was going to ask you, kirsten, particularly now and since 2004 the case where the two conventions one right next to each 84 with thre othee whole idea of a convention bounce outdated. >> it is some what jut dated. the average is about five points. around what you would have expected. polarized electorate also. i wouldn't have expected a huge bounce any way because is most people already know where they are. reuters found that there was an increase among independents from 34% to 45% in terms of romney's likability which is not an insignificant thing. that was his key goal in the convention was to convince people that he was more likeable. people already think he is competent. so in that sense i think it was very successful. >> chris: which brings me,

bill, to the question what did romney need to do in tampa and to what degree did he succeed? >> i think he did what they thought they needed to do and the question is was the theory of the race their theory was a, we can afford to make it a backward looking judgment of the last four years. you would fire the coach if you were 0 and 23 million. you don't need to make the affirmative for the new coach. clarify that obama has been a disappointment. i thought they should do more forward looking of the next four years and they are comfortable with asking voters to pass judgment on the last four years and just reassuring people about mitt romney. if you talk to the strategists they say you have to reassure people about mitt romney. the republican party is diverse. that is enough plus the case against obama. that is their theory of the race. if you believe and i am more

inclined to the other belief that you need to actually convince voters by making a positive case for the romney ryan ticket there is less of that. >> chris: exactly that point. do you believe that he reassured voters that he offered a credible reassuring alternative for a president and is that enough? >> i don't think we quite know that the point. it takes awhile to settle in. but the reporting i have done talking to democratic strategists and the obama people who were focus grouping the romney speech they believe that his interduke introductiof himself, the personal qualities from the speech on tuesday with mrs. romney giving a powerful testimonial all the way through, they believe that it sort of filled in governor romney in a positive way. but the same people said that we are not exactly sure what he is going to do so i think that remains an open question. i think bill may be right. if the romney campaign over the next 65 days or whatever it is

does not add something more to it, in what more would he do, i think that may be a problem for them. in the short-term, the chicago head quarters, david axelrod said what he said. people believe it would be a successful convention from the stand point of humanizing him. i think he came out of tampa as a more broader more humanized figure if we can use that word humanized. >> chris: you can use it. >> i'm kind of sick of that word humanized but that was the theme of what they were doing. >> i'm sick of humanized, too. like people think he he is an armadillo or something. you saw you this in cristie and the governors that spoke and heard this in paul ryan to express the disillusionment that we have of whether things can be fixed. remember the line ryan repeated we can do this.

we can do this which is striking. and i think that was something that they felt that was a burden on them because if you are going to ask people to make the big switch to the party that they just voted out of power a few years ago you have to believe that that party and the country can turn this all around. >> chris: i want to go back jeff to something that you brought up in the last segment and i will tell you that we had an argument about this during the commercial that is what we do during commercials and that is that friday the jobs report comes out for august and this is one -- the second-to-last report that we are going to get on the state of the economy before the election. how big a deal is that and to what degree does that either muffle or enhance the bounce that the democrats get out of here? >> i'm not sure it affects the bounce per se but i think if a political convention sort of creates its own weather system everyone sort of leaves thinking that was such a great speech. that pops the balloon a little bit. i was talking to a romney advisor last weekend that said 12 hours later the president gives after he speaks the jobs

report comes out and the aide said it is nine hours later. the romney cam pi campaign is d on the jobs report number. i think there would have to be dramatic shift. but it pops the balloon and changes the news coverage at least for that friday. it is the reality of what is really happening in the campaign. that friday number is important. i'm not sure it changes things but it sort of brings everyone back to ground level. >> the romney camp certainly believes that. they he believe it is is about the economy and above all about jobs. mitt romney used the term jobs 25 times in the acceptance speech. didn't mention afghanistan or the troops and even thank the troops for the service. mentioned debt ones. deficits twice. didn't mention the supreme court. they decided and then a very conscious tactical strategic really decision. we just got to make it about jobs. obama hasn't produced, we can produce. mckinley my view it is maybe a little narrow for a presidential message but that was their decision.

>> chris: why didn't they because they obviously must have known that they were not doing it and that they would get attacked ton. why not mention afghanistan and the troops? >> i guess the war is unpopular and raises the question of would romney do things differently and keep us there longer. >> chris: why not even say this is a president who has given our exit strategy to the enemy that everybody agrees in the republican camp is a mistake? >> why not say at least gratitude for the young men and women who fought over there in afghanistan and iraq. i think that was a mistake. >> chris: kirsten? >> on the jobs numbers i think it is a little overstated the effect. i think people are much more in tune with how they feel about things. they don't need anybody to tell them there aren't enough jobs. they already know that. one thing i would not underestimate is bill clinton's speech. it is the most anticipated speech more than even obama's or romney's was according could

pugh. i wouldn't underestimate the good house keeping seal of approval from bill clinton and the effect it has on voters. >> good house keeping. [ laughter ] >> that is so remarkable. because you you look at these two presidents who took the early trajectory of whose administrations were quite similar. big ambitious healthcare programs and in clinton's case never passed and big washout in the mid term election and bill clinton made the opposite decision of how to react to that from the one barack obama made. made a big turn to the center and worked with the republican ares and made concessions like mad. all the things that barack obama had the opportunity to do and refused to do and clinton by this time when was up for reelection. the economy was moving and wasn't moving as much as it would soon come to but it was really pretty strong and he won reelection overwhelmingly. nothing like the kind of

trouble that this president is in for reelection. my sense about this is that i trust that people will notice that these presidents took entirely different courses. and i sus abou suspect it willy be pointed out. >> chris: 15 seconds, jeff. how much do you think bill clinton's approval washes over and helps barack obama? >> i think it helps in places like, ohio. if you look at what he did in '08, obama he expanded the map. we'll see if he can speak to the voters who are unsure about him. i think it is anticipated, no question. >> chris: we all are anticipating it. thank you panel. see you next week. check out panel plus where your group picks right up with the discussion on our website. we will post the video before noon eastern time. make sure to follow us on twitter @ fox news. i'll be back with a personal note. the capital one cash rewards card gives you a 50% annual bonus. and everyone likes 50% more

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>>. >> chris: finally, i have a sad personal note. my step-mother mary wallace died yesterday. she was first married to my father's close friend ted yates. when he was killed during the 1967 war in israel. mary went into television and became the producer of face the nation. in the '80s she and my father found their way to each other and were married 26 years. mary died less than five months aft